At the start of the 2023-24 season, Zion Williamson featured in an edition of this newsletter. I used the percentage of Zion’s shot attempts which were coming near the rim as a proxy for his physical capacity with the ball in his hands. Analyse Dončić’s career through a similar lens, and the results are stark. In his first two years with the Dallas Mavericks, more than 20% of his field-goal attempts were taken within three feet of the basket; in 2024-25, such shots accounted for just 10.3% of his attempts.